It wasn’t even close. That’s the unexpected result of the November 6 election. And President Obama and his supporters must wrap their heads around this new reality—just as their Republican rivals are going to have to adjust to it.

After a very long, very hard campaign that began the night of the 2010 “Republican wave” election, a campaign defined by unprecedented spending and take-no-prisoners debate strategies, Barack Obama was re-elected president. And he did so with an ease that allowed him to claim what even his supporters dared not imagine until a little after 11 pm on the night of his last election: a credible, national win.

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Obama’s win was bigger than John Kennedy’s in 1960 (303 electoral votes, popular vote margin of 112,827), bigger than Richard Nixon’s in 1968 (301 electoral votes, popular vote plurlaity of 512,000), bigger than Jimmy Carter’s in 1976 (297 electoral votes, popular vote margin of 1,683,247), bigger than George W. Bush’s in 2000 (271 electoral votes and a popular vote loss of 543,816).

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Significantly, Rove’s man, George W. Bush won his 2004 re-election run with just 286 electoral votes, and faced serious challenges to the result in the state that put him across the 270 line: Ohio.

President Obama’s dramatic re-election victory was not a sign that a fractured nation had finally come together on Election Day. But it was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, health care reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction — and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. It was a repudiation of Reagan-era bromides about tax-cutting and trickle-down economics, and of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation.

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A solid majority of voters said President George W. Bush was to blame for the state of the economy rather than Mr. Obama. And voters showed more subtlety in their economic analysis than Mr. Romney probably expected. Those who thought the housing market and unemployment were the nation’s biggest problems said they voted for Mr. Obama. Those most concerned about taxes voted heavily for Mr. Romney.

Significantly, 60 percent of voters said taxes should be raised either on the rich or on everyone. Only 35 percent said they should not be raised at all; that group, naturally, went heavily for Mr. Romney. The polling made it clear that Americans were unhappy with the economic status quo, and substantial numbers of voters said the economy was getting worse. But Mr. Romney did not seem to persuade voters that the deficit was a crushing problem. Only 1 in 10 voters said the deficit was the most important issue facing the country.

Republicans had to be disappointed in the results of their unrelenting assault on Mr. Obama’s health care reform law. Only around a quarter of Americans said it should be repealed in its entirety.

People who were comfortable with the rightward slide of the Republican Party (as measured by their comfort with the Tea Party) voted heavily for Mr. Romney.

This is it, folks. Election night in America is finally here. And the world is watching.

If you don’t have access to television or you’re held up somewhere this evening, you can watch the election results live tonight on CMP, either on your laptop or on your smartphone.

Adjusted to Eastern Time (ET), here are the latest scheduled closing times for the polls in each state. This is likely to be the earliest time that results will be reported, and a winner possibly projected, for each state.

Many voters turned out today at the polls, stood up for and defended democracy against widespread GOP voter suppression efforts. Our fight to defend democracy must and will continue long past Election Day is over. We must come together to defeat The New Jim Crow. We must come together to undo the damage to democracy caused by GOP voter suppression efforts and Citizens United.

There’s a lot of work to be done in the long road ahead of us. For now, it is abundantly clear that the electoral math continues to favor President Obama. And now we wait for the results. Be sure to check out ThinkProgress.org’s Election Night Live Blog.

Fired Up and Ready to VOTE

From the Election Protection Team

Today is Election Day! This is the last chance to make sure eligible voters are prepared to participate in our democracy.

Spread the word – On Tuesday, keep 1-866-OUR-VOTE saved in your phone and make sure the Election Protection Smartphone App (for Android or listed as “ElectProtect” in iTunes) is installed and working properly on your phone. Make sure your 10 friends whom you’ve shared the app with are all set too, and have the hotline number ready on speed dial. Have questions or problems voting? Call the hotline.

Organize – We’ll be updating our website and social media platforms with news throughout Election Day. Be sure to follow @866OurVote on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and check the Latest News section of our site to stay up to date on the most crucial information affecting voters. Put your online organizing skills to work by retweeting, “liking”, and sharing our posts on social media—we’ll be sure to do the same.

Thousands of volunteers are ready in our call centers and at polling places to protect the vote. If you need to report any issues on Election Day or need information about voting, please call us at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. You can also report issues to us via twitter using the hashtag “#OVLReport.